Land and Housing Rights in al-Issawiya, Israeli Occupied East Jerusalem
The
Alternative Information Center (AIC) is working to place the issue of the
rights of Palestinians in Jerusalem, along with awareness of Jerusalem as a capital of the Arab world on local and international agendas. As part of this
effort, the AIC has begun advocating to protect the national, political, social, economic and cultural rights of
the people of the Palestinian village of Issawiya.
This
report starts with a summary of the situation and rights pertaining to residency,
housing and land rights in East Jerusalem, including Issawiya. This is followed
by a discussion of Issawiya’s history and current situation.
Residency
Status and Rights
Since
the 1967 illegal annexation, the Palestinian people living in East Jerusalem have
been considered permanent residents of the city, subject to Israeli governance,
law and jurisdiction.
As
permanent residents, not citizens, East Jerusalemites have the following rights
as determined by the Israeli government:
- The right to live and work in
Israel without the need for special permits.
- The right to vote in Jerusalem
municipality elections, but not in the national elections.
Under
Israeli Law, East Jerusalem permanent residents are entitled to the same social
rights according to the National Insurance Law;
they are also
entitled to health insurance.
However, East Jerusalem’s permanent
residents do not have the same rights as citizens, as summarized below:
- Permanent residency status, unlike
citizenship, is passed on to the children of residents only under certain
conditions; i.e. a permanent resident who marries someone who is neither a
permanent resident nor a citizen of Israel must apply for family
unification on behalf of his or her spouse.
- Permanent residents are considered
to be foreigners by Israel and their status
can be revoked as a matter of course. Once one’s permanent resident status
is revoked, they cannot work
or live in Israel and they and their families lose their social benefits.
- Permanent residency status is
sometimes revoked arbitrarily, with no opportunity for appeal, and with no
notification to the resident, who learns of the action only when applying
for social services.
Land
and Housing in East Jerusalem
With a
population of 732,100
(2007)
Jerusalem is the largest city in Israel, approximately 10% of the country’s population. Prior to the June 1967 war, the western part of
the city (inside Israel) was 38,000 dunam (1 dunam equals 1,000 sq. meters).
Israel’s illegal annexation of East Jerusalem’s 70,500 dunam nearly tripled the
size of the city under Israeli control. The
illegal annexation also gave the Jerusalem Municipality control over approximately
66,000 Palestinian Arabs residents, then 24% of the total city’s population.
Although East Jerusalem initially had
almost twice the land area of west Jerusalem, the Municipality has followed
Israel’s ongoing practice of
illegally expropriating more land from the Palestinians. Since 1967, over a
third of Arab-owned land in East Jerusalem, a total of 24,500 dunam, has been
stolen by Israel and is now available only for Israeli Jews. Of the remaining 46,000 dunam, only 9,000 are
planned for construction.
Municipal Services in East Jerusalem
The approximately
256,820 Palestinians who live in East Jerusalem (34% of the total city population)
do not receive the same benefits from either the city or Israeli government as
citizens do. The Israeli government has never budgeted sufficient resources to
meet basic infrastructure, education, or social service needs of the
Palestinian permanent residents. Some of
the discrepancies between people living in Jerusalem who are Jewish Israeli and
those who are Palestinian are illustrated below.
Families
under poverty line: 67% of Palestinian
families; 21% of Jewish families.
Children
under poverty line: 77% of
Palestinian children 39% of Jewish children.
Housing units built: As of the end of 2007 no
housing units for Palestinians; 50,197 housing units for Jewish population.
Sewage: 70 km of
main sewage lines are needed to provide adequate service to East Jerusalem
Water Connections: Approximately 160,000
Palestinian residents have no connection to the water network.
School
Classrooms: Shortage of
1,500 classrooms (number expected to reach 1,900 by 2010).
School Dropout Rate: 50% of Palestinian children; 7.4%
among Jewish students.
Avg. Social Work Caseload: 190 households per social worker; 111
households per social worker for Jewish families in West Jerusalem.
** Source: Association for Civil
Rights in Israel**
Sidewalks in East Jerusalem are often broken
or non-existent. Road are riddled with
potholes. The postal service barely functions in East Jerusalem. There are just
two post offices and five postal agencies for East Jerusalem’s 250,000
Palestinian residents, while more than 50 postal facilities serve the 500,000
residents of West Jerusalem.
Issawiya
Al-Issawiya is a divided Palestinian
village, part of which is in East Jerusalem, located three kilometers northeast
of Jerusalem’s center. The village’s dominant harmulas (clans)—Darwish, Abu
Hummous, and Aliyyan—can trace their village history back to the 16th
century. Prior to 1948, the village was
spread over 10,000 dunam, from modern-day Hadassah Hospital down to the Red
Khan on the Jericho Road. Today,
Issawiya straddles the Jerusalem border, sitting between Mt. Scopus, French
Hill, numerous Jewish settlements, the Ring Road and two Israeli military
outposts. It is a graphic example of Israel’s discriminatory land policies
towards Palestinians in East Jerusalem.
Immediately after the 1967 war, Israel
divided the village by illegally annexing 3,000 dunam to the Municipality of Jerusalem
while designating the other 7,000 dunam as outside of the city, including it as
part of the occupied West Bank.
In 1968, the Israeli government
confiscated four hundred of the 3,000 East Jerusalem dunam of Issawiya to build
the settlement known as Givat Shapira (French Hill). This settlement connected
Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital, located on Mt. Scopus, with the rest
of West Jerusalem. Additionally, the government recently designated 2,000 of the remaining dunam as “green areas” which are not zoned
for legal building. The reality today is
such that the 12,500 Palestinians who live in Issawiya, can legally only
inhabit 600 dunam of their land.
The 7,000 dunam fared no better. Today, this land has been designated by the Israeli
government as Area C, which means it is under complete control of the Israeli
military. Its residents have been physically separated from Issawiya’s
remaining 3,000 dunam by the Ring Road, which was built to link Israeli
settlements in East Jerusalem to each other and to West Jerusalem. Recently, a portion of the 7,000 dunam was illegally slated by
the Municipality to be used for construction of the E1 settlement bloc. The
development of this illegal settlement has been placed on hold due to
international pressure.
East
Jerusalem Urban Planning
Due to
the continuing uncertainty of the future of
City planning in
Israeli planning is guided by one main
objective: maintaining a Jewish majority in the city. The Israeli government
uses four planning policies to implement its goal:
- Announcing non-built Palestinian
land as “green area”—to be preserved as an open space—where construction
is forbidden.
- Limiting Palestinian building
opportunities, such as reducing the permitted housing density and
systematically demolishing unlicensed homes.
- Expropriating Palestinian lands
for the sake of ‘public interest’: Palestinian property is taken as a
green area in order to build Jewish settlements; while Palestinian
neighborhoods suffer from a severe lack of public space to build any
public institutions.
- Excluding Palestinians from the
process of municipal planning.
Prior to 1977 there was no master plan
in East Jerusalem, meaning that there was almost no legal possibility for any
Palestinian to receive a building permit there.
Even with an approved master plan in place, which many villages are
still in the process of obtaining while others have not even started the
procedure, building possibilities for the Palestinian community is even more
restricted. Almost all the lands outside the built-up areas are pronounced as
green areas where building is forbidden.
Contrary to the known purpose of green
areas that are parcels kept for public open spaces, these areas are “only green
for the Palestinian population,” as Teddy Kollek, the former mayor of Jerusalem
is quoted as having said. As long as the
municipality does not decide to use the land in order to build new settlements
or to expand the existing ones, these lands are maintained as green areas,
forbidding Palestinians from expanding out side the built-up areas. Almost 35% of the land in the Palestinian
areas in East Jerusalem is declared green areas (in Issawiya 80% of the
village’s remaining 3,000 dunam of land, land which remained inside the
This policy has led to terrible
overcrowding in the Palestinian neighborhoods where more than 30 percent of
families in
The process of obtaining a building or
renovation permit is extremely difficult, long and complicated under normal
circumstances. For
The Case of Issawiya
In
Issawiya, restrictive building permits have led to a reality where residents
are forced to conduct 90% of new building without permission from Israeli
authorities. Also, the loss of land and
building space for the community has led to massive overcrowding and worsening
housing conditions. Today, Issawiya is
characterized by narrow dilapidated roads, an absence of adequate parking, and
insufficient housing for the ever growing population.
While
there are many causes for overcrowding in Issawiya, two main causes are solely
related to land and housing issues:
- Difficulty of obtaining permits to
build “legally”
·
Permits are extremely expensive, requiring a lengthy and
complicated application process.
·
Even if one has the 65,000 NIS to 80,000 NIS (in addition to
the taxes and other additional fees which adds up to an extra 1,000 NIS) to
purchase a building permit, this does not guarantee access to a permit.
· Like in Issawiya, most East Jerusalemites are day workers and cannot afford to pay both for a building permit and for the cost of building a home.
- Availability of building permits
·
The Jerusalem Municipality has not given permits for new
buildings in Issawiya for years.
·
The Municipality has refused to allow “Palestinian”
municipal institutions to be erected in Issawiya upon the eight plots of
village land zoned for public purposes (the infamous green areas)
Growth
in Issawiya has been “legally” stunted by the Municipality, but naturally the
population continues to grow. While the
current population of Issawiya sits at 12,000, it is increasing at a rate of
3.5% each year placing the expected population in the year 2020 at 20,800
residents. The current conditions have
created a situation where “illegal” growth is necessary for Issawiya’s
survival.
According
to a local human rights group, the Palestinian Society for the Protection of
Human Rights and the Environment (LAWE), major problems regarding urban
planning for Issawiya are as follows:
- Disregard for Palestinian
ownership of private lands.
- Lack of an official body to solve
housing problems.
- Lack of real estate or other
companies who would take the initiative to build homes to rent in the
village.
- Issue of the division and sale of
land. Although land might be available, Palestinian families traditionally
keep lands within the family.
- Plans don’t take into
consideration the realities of village roads and local agreements.
- Failure to acknowledge the vast
differences in life-style and land use in Palestinian villages and Israeli
neighborhoods and settlements.
Issawiya’s
Master Plan
Initial
designs for a master plan in Issawiya were drawn up in the early 1980s. Based
on 666 dunam of land, this plan was never finalized, making any new
construction or renovation rather precarious. Nearly 30 years later, Issawiya,
like many other
In
1991, the Jerusalem Municipality approved an outline for Issawiya, but did not
allow for sufficient growth, particularly for necessary community buildings and
commercial areas. The 1991 plan also excluded some land and designated other
areas as open space, thereby making numerous pre-existing structures illegal
and in danger of condemnation.
Several
years ago, efforts were undertaken to increase the size of the master plan,
this time to 2,400 dunam. However, the Municipality cited a lack of funds in
its refusal to allow the expansion. Ever determined, the village secured
outside financial backing and succeeded in increasing the master plan to 1,500
dunums. Revealing perhaps the real reason for their refusal, the Municipality
then began to appropriate sections of land for various purposes, eventually
decreasing the size to 900 dunam. This essentially brought the plan back to
where it began, with the few areas zoned for “legal” building too small to
support the existing population.
In
2004, BIMKOM, an Israeli organization focusing on planning rights, was brought
in at the request of the community. BIMKOM planners began working with Issawiya
residents, first meeting with local business leaders to get a sense of the
issues, needs, and views of the village.
Planners
then conducted a community-wide seminar to discern what aspects of the
neighborhood residents wanted to retain, as well as creating a general
framework for the new plan. To foster a better understanding of the master plan
and the bureaucratic planning process in
Finally,
after three years of work BIMKOM brought the plan, called the Kaminker Project,
to the local planning committee. Submission to the local committee, comprised
of city council members and thus a very political body, is the first step in
the approval process. The local committee then either approves the plan or
proposes recommendations before sending the plan on to the regional committee.
In this case, the local committee asked for several changes, citing three major
issues.
Firstly,
residents of the adjacent settlement community of French Hill raised objections
to the plan. Community members didn’t want Issawiya buildings built too close
to their land, so they opposed the plan. The municipality, supporting the
wishes of French Hill, instructed BIMKOM to adjust the plan to leave more
“green space” between the two villages.
Israeli
military officials raised similar arguments relating to their outpost on
Finally,
the most difficult impediment came from the Israel Nature and National Parks
Protection Authority (INPA). The INPA had designs for a large park between
Issawiya and At-Tur, a neighboring Palestinian village, which overlapped with
areas zoned for homes and other buildings on Issawiya’s master plan. BIMKOM
originally negotiated an agreement with the head of the INPA, but municipality
politics undermined the arrangement. As a result, BIMKOM has had to limit the
zoning of these areas for any building for the present time.
As
of August 2008, Issawiya’s master plan stands at some 1,300-1,500 dunam. BIMKOM
has a meeting with the regional planning office in late September 2008, where
more changes could be recommended. In addition, the consent of the Issawiya
community is still needed for changes made in INPA area, which will be
difficult. Those closest to the project estimate that it will likely take another
two years before final government approval of the Kaminker Project is granted.
“The Issawiya planning problem is an East Jerusalem problem. The Israeli government wishes to push out most, if not all of the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem and into the West Bank. They want to keep a Jewish majority in Jerusalem to remain in control of the city. In the past the ratio was 70:30, Israelis to Palestinians, but more recently the ratio has changed to 60:40. The Israeli’s are nervous about this shift and looking to do something about it. By confiscating land in East Jerusalem, making it expensive and difficult to expand villages, and demolishing houses, the government hopes to make life uncomfortable enough for the East Jerusalem Palestinians so that they will up and move the area.”
-Hani Isawi, Head of the Issawiya Land Defense Committee
Home
Demolitions
“The demolition of a home is carried out
generally according to the Planning and Construction Law (1965). According to this law, all construction,
including the expansion of a home, requires a permit. Building without a permit constitutes a
criminal offense, and a structure so erected is designated for demolition. In order to get a construction permit,
however, the land must appear in an approved city plan. City plans define the
use to be made of the land, and there are national, district, and local
plans. To obtain a construction permit,
a detailed local city plan must exist” (ACRI – Real Estate or Rights, July
2008, Pg. 19)
Due to the price of the building permits as
well as the difficult process of obtaining renovation or building permission
from the Israeli authorities, 90% of the homes in Issawiya are built
“illegally” without a proper permit. The
One such Issawiya family, who recently
received a demolition order, is that of Fathi Khader Abu Humus. Prior to building, Fathi Khader applied to
the Jerusalem Municipality for a legal building permit. While the Municipality initially told him
that he could build on the land, when he arrived at the office to purchase a
permit they would not sell it to him.
Three separate times, the Municipality told him to make changes to his
building plans, which he did, and yet they still would not grant him legal
permission to build on his own land.
Frustrated, and in dire need of a new home for his ever growing family,
Fathi made the difficult decision to build without a permit.
His building, which was constructed in 2002,
consists of three apartments on the upper lever, his grocery store and the
town’s only bakery on the main floor.
Since the construction of the building, he has been paying monthly fines
of 800
In
“If
the Municipality does not allow us to construct a master development plan, the
construction of illegal housing in Issawiya will only increase. No matter what the Municipality tries to do
they cannot stop the inevitable expansion of the Issawiya community. Palestinians are staying in their villages and
refuse to move or be pushed out. They
will fight for their land and continue to fight for their homes despite what
the Israeli government will do.”
List of Sources
The
The
Association for Civil Rights in
---,
“Real Estate or Rights: Housing Rights and Government Policy in
BIMKOM
– Planners for Planning Rights, “The Kaminker Project in the
B’tselem – The Israeli Information Center for
Human Rights in the Occupied Territories http://www.btselem.org
Ir Amin, “Winning the
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